imperial sanction, have been conceded to the holy Roman church and to all its pontiffs. If any one, moreover,—which we do not believe—prove a scorner or despiser in this matter, he shall be subject and bound over to eternal damnation; and shall feel that the holy chiefs of the apostles of God, Peter and Paul, will be opposed to him in the present and in the future life. And, being burned in the nethermost hell, he shall perish with the devil and all the impious.
The page, moreover, of this our imperial decree, we, confirming it with our own hands, did place above thv venerable body of St. Peter chief of the apostles; and there, promising to that same apostle of God that we would preserve inviolably all its provisions, and would leave in our commands to all the emperors our successors to preserve them, we did hand it over, to be enduringly and happily possessed, to our most blessed father Sylvester the supreme pontiff and universal pope, and, through him, to all the pontiffs his successors—God our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ consenting.
And the imperial subscription: May the Divinity preserve you for many years, oh most holy and blessed fathers.
Given at Rome on the third day before the Kalends of April, our master the august Flavius Constantine, for the fourth time, and Galligano, most illustrious men, being consuls.
IV.
THE FOUNDATION CHARTER OF THE ORDER OF CLUNY. SEPT. 11, 910 A.D.
(Edited anew according to the original by A. Bruel: "Recueil des Chartes de I'Abbaye de Cluny." Paris, 1876.)
To all right thinkers it is clear that the providence of God has so provided for certain rich men that, by means of their transitory possessions, if they use them well, they may be able to merit everlasting rewards. As to which
